Sunday, April 10, 2016

The Bayelsa State Government has denied media reports make a round that
it received N12.85 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria as bail out funds
for the payment of salaries of civil servants, describing it as "lies from
the pit of hell," ITRealms reports.

The Chief Press Secretary to the
Governor, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said the government had received only
N1.285 billion from the CBN as salary bail out funds for its LGAs.

"We wish to make it very clear that the Bayelsa State
Government has received only N1.285 billion from the CBN as salary bail out
funds for its local government areas. As at July/August 2015, when application
for these funds were made, the state government was not owing its workers,
including pensioners any outstanding salaries and so could not have applied for
any such bail out funds. This position was correctly captured in the Vanguard
Newspapers of October 29, 2015 and the online publication -nigershowbiz.com,”
he said.

The government of Bayelsa, he said, is not unaware of the
antics of certain persons to report bail out of N12.85 billion instead of
N1.285 billion by the mere placement of the dot after 2 instead of after 1 in
the figures above.

“Government had in its last monthly transparency briefing
held on 24 March, 2016 and in the meetings held by the Governor with various
labour leaders explained that it had received N1.285 billion on behalf of the
local governments and that arising from the change of local government council
officers and the staff verification exercise, the funds will not be released
until those processes have been concluded,” he said.

The State government warned Bayelsans that the fund is a
loan and the state government has commenced repayment even though we have not
started utilisation.

“We request all media houses to report issues objectively
after sufficient cross check of facts, especially when that information could
create security challenges to the state," he said.